One of the most common vending machines includes a transparent bubble dome within which food, candy, gum or toys dimensioned substantially as pellets can be displayed. The transparent dome is supported on a cast housing which includes a crank handle. A slot receives a coin to allow rotation of the crank handle and discharge a certain quantum of the pellets down a discharge chute to a vendee. The housing is normally supported on a pedestal having a base which is thereafter secured in some manner to prevent the unauthorized asportation of the machine from the premises.
Some evolution in this type of machine has occurred. For example, it is now fairly common to see a triad of such machines supported on a single pedestal, with the triad of machines being oriented in series. Several inefficiencies exist with respect to both of these designs.
One form of inefficiency involves the construction of the transparent dome which displays the pellets to the vendee. Typically, the transparent dome has an open bottom. Thus, to gain access to the interior of a vending machine which is not empty the machine must be inverted to keep from spilling the contents within the transparent dome. As a result, such a machine's interior will typically not be accessed for cleaning until very little of the contents remain, since inverting the machine causes several further associated inefficiencies.
A further inefficiency involves the retrieval of coins from some older machines. Most coins are fed into a slot on an outer front face of the vending machine. The slot is formed within a disc operatively connected to a crank handle which is capable of rotation only in the presence of an appropriately dimensioned coin, since only the appropriate coin trips a latch mechanism. Once the crank handle has been rotated, the coin exits from the slot at a lower most position of the disc, and rolls down a chase into a coinbox which is open topped. Thus, if the machine is to be accessed by inverting the transparent dome before its contents have been exhausted, the money within the coin box will become displaced because the vending machine must be inverted to keep the contents within the dome from spilling out. Most newer machines have a locked access door to the coinbox to solve this problem.
A further form of inefficiency involves the utilization of the wrong denomination coin, an inappropriate token or slug. First, it should be noted that most machines will not admit a coin having a diameter greater than the coin necessary to make the machine work. Thus, a quarter machine will not have a slot sufficiently large to receive a half-dollar. However, when a smaller dimensioned coin, such as a penny, nickel or dime is inserted within the quarter slot, most prior art machines will jam and become inoperative until one can pull the wrong coin from the slot. If the potential vendee is incapable of removing the wrong denominated coin, the machine must sit idle until the vendor attends the machine for regular servicing or maintenance. Since the contents within the dome have not been exhausted because the machine has been disabled, this service call for replenishment is inefficient. Second, to remove a wrong sized coin, it is sometimes necessary to invert the machine which dislodges the coins already within the coin box.
Some more modern vending machines will incorporate a slit that communicates with the slot and allows a smaller dimensioned coin to pass directly from the slot into the coinbox thereby unjamming the machine, but depriving the vendee from the potential to retrieve the coin. This sometimes engenders animosity on the part of the vendee.
A further source of irritation to a vendee may include the purchase of nonuniform amounts of goods from the machine itself. Typically, the pellets within the dome communicate with a gate type device at a lower most portion which ideally administers a uniform quantum of the articles to the vendee. Typically such a gate is formed as an enclosure having an opening in communication with the contents in the dome. Rotation of the handle, as permitted by the coin, allows the enclosure to rotate thereby inverting the enclosure opening and allowing the contents within the enclosure to be discharged down a chute for access by the vendee upon the pivotal manipulation of a flap which controls access to the chute. One problem frequently entails the vexing problem of "bridging" of the pellet shaped contents residing within the dome. Curiously, when a vendee buys some of the contents in the dome, and a quantum of pellets have been discharged through the gate, pellets not discharged and immediately above the gate sometimes will form an archway thereby defining a void under the archway and providing an obstruction precluding the throughpassage of further pellets within the gate. Successive vendees who receive disproportionate amounts of the pellets can sometimes become irate and, in an attempt to overcome the arch effect, impart vibration to the machine which passersby may interpret as machine abuse.
A further form of inefficiency entails the use of unsecured open topped coinboxes. Since it is sometimes desirable to delegate duties, one may hire a third party to replenish the machines and extract the coins. Because the contents of the container is accessible by the third party, some vendors may fear that the third party is under-reporting the income from a given machine. Because of the nature of this business, a vendor will not necessarily be able to detect under-reporting of income even if that under-reporting is substantial.
The following patents reflect the state of the art of which applicant is aware insofar as these patents appear relevant to the instant process. It is stipulated that none of these patents either singularly or in any conceivable combination teach or render obvious that which is the claimed nexus of the instant invention:
______________________________________ D179518 Probasco D95207 Hoban D90652 Gilmer D112942 Garner 2 010 877 Morell 3 171 591 Long 2 613 871 Broussard 3 807 628 Beck 2 828 909 Sollenberger ______________________________________